Below is an excellent article that goes into detail about how email marketing can work for small businesses and help interact with customers on minor but potentially important details that can affect your business.

E-mail provides low-cost marketing Internet tool builds repeat business

Along that same line, a very good article for those new to the arena of email marketing.

Improve E-Mail Metrics With Newsletters

Record Growth for Broadband

How, you ask, is this relevant to retention marketing? With more people having always on connections at home, customers and potential customers of yours will do things more frequently with this fast speed and always on access. This is great for email marketing as it won't be a labor for Hotmail and Yahoo (and the like) users to check their email at home more than one time a night. With this comes more potential purchases, leads and your goals of email marketing campaigns fulfilled.

Many clients have recently asked BrightWave Marketing how the recent sp*m legislation could effect them. Well, there is no simple answer as it is ongoing issue. I have assembled a collection of articles that may be helpful.

The most important items are related to those shady sp*mmers who don't offer unsubscribe links and misleading subject lines. Certain states do require an ADV for advertisement if the email is an advertisement, even if it is a permission based email (as all BrightWave Marketing clients emails are). Stay tuned on this. BrightWave Marketing can evaluate your current privacy policy and email situation to make sure you are in line with any and all legislation. Contact us for more details about this.

Many interesting reads, nevertheless.

An interesting study by BigFoot Interactive on how users approach email and potential sp*m.

Internet Giants Unite Against Sp*m; NY's Schumer Jumps On Bandwagon
We'll see about details and realities of a do not email list. A do not call list has taken years to set up and the do not email list has many has many fundamental issues to be worked out, such as: how would it work and what about the many people that have multiple accounts. It is a positive that Yahoo!, AOL , and MSN are involved since much of the consumer base uses their email service. This will assist with getting sp*m out of the way for permission email.

A thought provoking article by ClickZ on state of sp*m.
I disagree with the losing part - things are changing so quickly as compared to telemarketing and the industry is being very proactive. It's a tough battle but doing many of the right things to counter this epidemic of marketing.

FTC Forum Tackles Federal Sp*m Legislation

Some more articles on sp*m.
Is This the Year for a Federal Solution to Sp*m?
Will Sp*m Be CANned?

Even the vaunted New York Times takes on sp*m in an editorial.

Below is an informative article from ClickZ on improving open rates and other key steps in assembling a solid email- the often forgotten key to successful email campaigns.

Seven Questions for an E-Mail-Specific Creative Brief

An article for those in the real estate industry or interested in new ideas on how different industries are taking advantage of developing technologies in traditional businesses. This is not surprising as this industry is a great fit for email and
customer relationship programs.

Realtors Are Increasing Use of Internet, Web Technology

The Unsubscribe Dilemma - This article from ClickZ addresses difficulties of mastering this crucial piece of the email puzzle.

BWM does not specialize in web design (although we do handle certain engagements in this area) but we are strong user experience advocates and this hits the nail on the head - doesn't everyone just skip intro on those expensive flash designs anyway?

Low-End Media for User Empowerment

Summary: Fancy media on websites typically fails user testing. Simple text and clear photos not only communicate better with users, they also enhance users' feeling of control and thus support the Web's mission as an instant gratification environment.

Another of the seemingly endless articles of post-bubble dot com darling and IPO candidate, Google.

Content Targeting Google-Style

An article from MSNBC shows how their chief competitor is countering to their growing dominance in the search business.

As Baghdad was beginning to fall on April 9, CNN's Wolf Blitzer suggested it was as if the Iraqi leadership sent a mass email to their fellow leaders suggesting they leave town immediately - he didn't know if they were technology savvy to do this but this was interesting to suggest email played a key role. While this is a obviously a charged time, it still shows the timely nature and power, email can play in many facets of life.

Worst Practices - Part 1
A reader told us of how one email newsletter's unsubscribe option entailed the user having to figure out an annoying riddle - i hope this is sp*m as otherwise, their marketing folks should be fired.

Worst Practices - Part 2
NASCAR Fan Faces Prison Time for E-mails -worst use of email as consumer channel

If you have any interesting articles, thoughts or case studies, you would like to share for a future BrightWave Report, please email them to us.